Meet Concordia’s newest Royal Society of Canada honourees

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) is honouring four Concordia faculty with some of the highest accolades available to scientists, scholars and artists from across the country.

Angélique Willkie, associate professor of contemporary dance, and Nadia Myre, assistant professor in the Department of Studio Arts, will be inducted as new RSC fellows for their remarkable contributions in the arts.

Mireille Paquet, associate professor of political science, will become a member of the society’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. It’s Canada’s first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership.

Michel Magnan, professor in accountancy and current RSC member, will be honoured with the Yvan Allaire Medal for his outstanding contribution in governance of public and private organizations.

“I would like to congratulate Angélique, Nadia, Mireille and Michel for these well-deserved and prestigious recognitions,” says Dominique Bérubé, vice-president of research and graduate studies. “They join a brilliant cohort of Concordia faculty who have been honoured as some of Canada’s preeminent thought leaders by the RSC.”

A sought-after researcher, performer and community leader

Angélique Willkie is the Tier 2 Concordia University Research Chair in Ecologies of B/black Performance. Her groundbreaking contributions to the fields of dance and postsecondary education are grounded in a 30-year performance career across the major festivals and stages of North America and Europe.

As an artist and scholar, she has a breadth of performance knowledge that has crystallized into a rigorous research program and a highly sought-after pedagogy in dance practice, dramaturgy and critical theory.

Willkie is also an important community leader, serving on multiple advisory and curatorial boards within Montreal’s professional dance scene. Her leadership at Concordia includes serving as both chair of the President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism and special advisor to the provost for Black integration and knowledges. She has developed research, policy and training toward greater social and racial equity at the university.

Combining non-traditional and traditional Indigenous practices

Nadia Myre is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Indigenous Arts Practice. Her interdisciplinary artistic practice examines the complexities of identity, language, resilience, memory, desire and the politics of belonging.

Myre is a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation. She works with both non-traditional and traditional Indigenous materials and practices, combining ancestral techniques in beading, fibers and ceramics with contemporary media such as digital photography, video and performance.

Her use of transcultural objects and artifacts powerfully explores how shifts of form, utility and significance occur as they are shared and/or appropriated between cultures.

Creating research spaces to understand contemporary immigration

Political scientist Mireille Paquet holds the Tier 2 Concordia University Research Chair in Politics of Immigration. Her innovative research focuses on the governance of immigration and integration policies in federal regimes and on the role of bureaucracies in immigration policy-making.

Paquet is recognized for her leadership in creating important spaces for research collaboration infrastructures that contribute to the development of knowledge about Canada and Quebec.

Since 2018, she has led the Équipe de recherche sur l’immigration au Québec et ailleurs  (ÉRIQA) in order to develop an innovative, comparative and multidisciplinary research program on contemporary immigration to Quebec.

She is now the Concordia lead for the 2023-30 Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) pan-Canadian project Migrant Integration in the Mid-21st Century: Bridging Divides.

A globally renowned expert in corporate governance and responsibility

Michel Magnan is a distinguished university research professor in accountancy and the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair in Corporate Governance at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business. He is considered a research pioneer in the areas of governance, performance and compensation management as well as corporate social responsibility and ethical issues of governance.

Magnan is a leading innovator in environmental disclosure and a leader in interdisciplinary management research and ranks among the world’s most cited scholars in these areas.

He is a member of the board of directors at Desjardins Group, where he chairs the Audit and Inspection Commission and is a member of the Corporate Governance and Finance Commission. These responsibilities allow him to apply the results of his research in the governance of the largest financial cooperative in the country.

Magnan is also a member of Concordia’s Pension Committee, where he chairs the Audit Committee and is a member of the Investment Subcommittee.

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